1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the composition of advertising matter as would be done for a newspaper, classified telephone or business directory and to other related uses. More particularly, the invention relates to an electronic composition and display system for permitting an operator to quickly and accurately compose advertising display matter without the need for most hand layout and composition functions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Throughout the modern history of newspapers, the composition and layout of advertising matter has been a time consuming and labor-intensive task. To compose a typical advertisement, an ad-layout operator would first make a rough pencil sketch of the proposed advertisement in accordance with the intructions of the advertising computer. The operator would sketch rough areas in which pictures or sketches were to be displayed and block out areas in which textual matter was to be fitted. Large type headings were sketched in with the composer making only a rough estimate as to the actual size and length of the particular heading. Once the rough sketch was made, composing room personnel would "paste up" the actual pictures upon a mark-up of the advertisement and attempt to fit the textual matter within the boundaries set by the composing operator. Often, the text would not fit within the boundaries estimated. For example, the large textual headings would extend over the boundaries of the advertisement making the entire layout unacceptable. At this point, the mark-up of the advertisement was sent back to the composing room for a second try. Often the process had to be repeated three or more times before an acceptable copy was obtained.
Later, electronic composition systems were described for permitting an operator to partially compose an advertisement upon an electronic interactive terminal. With some of these systems, the operator could type in textual matter or enter such textual matter upon a position determined by him upon the CRT (cathode ray tub) screen. In these systems, data was displayed upon a CRT screen corresponding to the text and its positions within the actual advertising copy. These systems provided an output in the form of a punched paper tape or other digitized form of output which was transferred to a phototypesetter or other similar device. The phototypesetter then produced a copy of the textual matter with which the photographs or sketches and other non-textual matter were then pasted up.
Although such systems have somewhat reduced the intensity of labor involved in a typical advertisement composition situation, the systems heretobefore known were not able to perform many of the most critical advertising composition functions. For example, the character produced upon the screens of previously known systems were not true representations of the character sizes used in the actual advertising copy. For that reason, the operator could not be certain that the positions and spacing chosen would alternately be acceptable in the final advertising copy. Moreover, in none of the previously known systems was an operator able to flow text as is so often required in advertising composition. Furthermore, the number of lines and the position of lines displayed upon the CRT's in previously known systems were extremely limited because, inter alia, of the memory systems typically employed. Still further, other problems were encountered in the reaction speed of the system to operator-initiated commands. For example, if an operator wished to erase an image of one advertisement and replace it with an entirely new image of another advertisement, long time delays were involved. If more than one work station were connected to a common computer or digital processing system servicing each work station, operation upon one of the work stations typically completely tied up the digital processing system making it unavailable for servicing all the other work stations until the first work station had finished its particular operation.